Hello everyone welcome to my weekly audio journal.
Today I would like to share this snippet from the Almanac of Naval Ravikant.
Every desire is a chosen unhappiness.
Looking outside yourself for anything is the fundamental delusion. Not to say you shouldn't do things on the outside. You absolutely should. You're a living creature. There are things you do, you locally reverse entropy. That's why you're here.
You were meant to do something. You are not just meant to lie there in the sand and meditate all day long. You should self-actualise. You should do what you are meant to do.
The idea you are going to change something in the outside world and that is going to bring you the peace, everlasting, joy and happiness you deserve is a fundamental delusion. We all suffer from, including me.
The mistake over and over is to say, "Oh, I'll be happy when I get that thing." whatever it is. That is the fundamental mistake, we all make ,24/7, all day long.
Desire is a contract you make with yourself to be unhappy until you get what you want. I don't think most of us realise that's what it is. I think we go about desiring things all day long and then wonder why we're unhappy.
I like to stay aware of it because then I can choose my desires very carefully. I try not to have more than one big desire in my life at any given time. And I also recognise it is the axis of my suffering. I realised the area where I have chosen to be unhappy.
One thing I've learnt recently, It's way more important to perfect your desires then to try to do something you don't 100% desire.
When you're young and healthy, you can do more. By doing more, you're actually taking on more and more desires. You don't realise this. You don't realise this is slowly destroying your happiness. I find younger people are less happy, but more healthy. Older people are more happy but less healthy. When you were young, you have time, you have health but you have no money. When you're middle age, you have money and you have health, but you have no time. When you're old, you have money and you have time, but you have no health. So the trifecta is trying to get all three at once.
By the time people realise that they have enough money, they've lost their time and health.
Thank you everyone for listening.
